Political–economic strategies and settlement ecology in the Mesoamerican Gulf Lowlands: Olmec, Epi-Olmec, and Classic Period settlement in the El Mesón area of the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin, Veracruz, Mexico

In 2003 I initiated the Recorrido Arqueológico El Mesón (RAM) to examine settlement patterns and political and economic organization in the area around El Mesón, a Late Formative period center located in the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin (ELPB) of the modern Mexican state of Veracruz. During the course of the survey, approximately 400 individual architectural features and artifact concentrations were identified within the 27km2 survey area. While the focus of the research was on the Formative to Classic period transition, the RAM survey documented an uninterrupted sequence of occupation in the area spanning the Early Formative period through the Postclassic periods.